3 Simple Things To Do Before Installing OS X Mountain Lion

The release of OS X Mountain Lion is just around the corner (it’s official: July 25), but before jumping into the latest major Mac system update, you’ll want to do a few things. We’ve broken it down to a few simple essentials that are easy to follow:

1) Verify System Requirements and Check Compatibility

Almost all relatively new Macs will run Mac OS X 10.8. You can easily find out if your Mac will run Mountain Lion by comparing it against this list of supported machines:

iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)

MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)

MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)

MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)

Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)

Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)

Xserve (Early 2009)

If you’re unsure of your make and model year, check on your Mac by doing the following:

From the  Apple menu, select “About This Mac”, then click on “More Info”

The model name and date will be shown, compare that to the list

All things considered, the system requirements for OS X Mountain Lion are fairly light, but there are some Core 2 Duo Macs that lose support and won’t be able to update. That can be frustrating, but it’s the price of progress. Remember that you’ll need at least 12GB of storage space available to install Mountain Lion, but realistically you should have more than that available to insure your Mac runs best anyway.

2) Check App Compatibility

If you’re already running OS X Lion (10.7) then you probably don’t need to worry much, but for those who are upgrading to Mountain Lion from Snow Leopard, there’s a good chance that an app or two won’t work. This is due to new architectural requirements for the latest versions of OS X and unfortunately there are some developers who have gotten on board to update their apps yet, despite having years to do so (QuickBooks is a prominent example).

If you find apps that are incompatible with OS X 10.8 you can either find an alternative on the App Store, or consider holding off on the system upgrade until the developer gets their act together. Smaller developers tend to do this faster than larger software companies, so if you’re waiting for a large company it may take a long time.

3) Backup, Backup, Backup

This is probably the most important step when upgrading any OS and a Mac is no different. The odds of something going wrong are slim, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry. Your best bet is to use Time Machine and initiate a manual backup right before installing OS X 10.8 update. If you don’t have Time Machine setup and configured yet, what are you waiting for? Grab a cheap external hard drive and set it up as a backup drive now, Time Machine is completely automated and as easy as backups get.

Ready? Buy & Install

Once Mountain Lion is on the Mac App Store, it’ll be a $20 purchase and installs directly from the App Store. It takes about 30-45 minutes to install depending on the speed of the internet connection and it’s mostly automated, you don’t need to sit around babysitting the installer.

Bonus Tips

Have some more time on your hands and feel like doing a bit more than the bare essentials? Before installing a major new OS version it can be a good time to clear out unused apps, verify disk integrity, and clear up some free disk space. Here are 5 ideas to get you rolling in that direction:

You should also Google the crap out of the internet. Read other users’ experiences and see what troubles people are having. Familiarising yourself with the general feedback will help make the decision to upgrade or to wait.

As someone who recently installed ML, let me tell you, it’s a nightmare. Like Lion but none of the tricks, hacks, add-ons, and workarounds seems to have any effect. Back to square one.

The install process was identical to Lion. I assume it will automatically upgrade your OS, not prompt you for a clean install. You’ll have to do the USB thumb drive route for that. (search this site to find the tutorial)

I’ve never done a backup of my computer before updating an operating system, including when I upgraded to Lion from Snow Leopard. I’m afraid to do it again because something might happen. What exactly do I need to backup my computer (besides Time Machine which costs too much) and how do I do it?

Carbon Copy Cloner is a good alternative to Time Machine–you can tell it what folders to back up. You can get an external drive and enclosure for less than $100, or check out the newer tech Universal Drive Adapter and use a bare drive. If you exclude enough stuff, a usb key might suffice. But for backups you want three copies of your data, not just two….

Nothing will be lost. You can back the files up before you upgrade clean (which is preferable) or you can choose the option to install Mountain Lion by overwriting existing files, which would keep all your old files in place.

Hello, I wanted to ask. I don’t have an external hard drive and I want to update to OS X Mountain Lion right now. Is it okay if I don’t back up? I mean, will any files be lost? If not it’s good if yes well i need to buy a drive. Thank you.

Hi guys, sorry im new in mac OS, i have a simple question… I have Mac OS 10.7.4 and i want to upgrade to the newest 10.8, i have Photoshop and other apps intalled, so my question is, do I loose the apps I have already installed? do I need to re-install them after the upgrade? or once I upgrade Mac just keed the apps?
thank you,

i have snow leopard and bootcamp windows 7.if i upgrade to mountain lion i will lose the bootcamp??and if i lose what i have to do to keep the bootcamp after..
p.s. i have many programs in windows dont want to install again if possible :)
thank you